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Innocent on Death Row: A Matter of Perspective

In times of war, often times stories of human tragedy in civilian life gets pushed to the back burner.  Moreover with the internet there is also a tendency to become over saturated with a particular story to the point of becoming desensitized to its repercussions on society and so the plight of Darnell Williams quietly labors on. 

Williams was due to be executed in Indiana on 1 August 2003 one of two men sentenced to death in 1987 for a double murder committed during the course of a robbery in 1986. Williams has pleaded his innocence from the beginning, yet was convicted and sentenced to death row and if not for drops of blood found at the crime scene and modern technology, Williams would be another name quietly etched into Americas barbaric death row history in the name of justice. Williams was given a stay of execution by the Indiana parole Board while new found DNA evidence can be analyzed. 

Here is the problem, as of July 30, 2003 over 131 innocent men have been exonerated based on DNA evidence.  So why isn’t it mandated that all death row cases, state and federal require the use of DNA technology if necessary? 

The question of human failure and judicial morality became front and center two years ago as Illinois Governor George Ryan issued an Executive Order Creating the Governor's Commission on Capital Punishment after imposing a moratorium on the death penalty. The moratorium was imposed due to a mounting amount of evidence that the death penalty was not being applied fairly in the state of Illinois.  Other states that use this antiquated form of punishment should have followed suit but did not. 

According to Barry Scheck, founder of the Innocence Project, “The American criminal justice system fails sometimes. This is not a disputed fact. One price of these failures is the loss of life and livelihood for those unfortunate enough to be wrongfully convicted. The cases of those exonerated by DNA testing have revealed disturbing trends in our criminal justice system. Some claim that the eventual exoneration of these men proves that the system works. If that were true, then justice is not being administered by our police, prosecutors, defense lawyers, or our courts. It is being dispensed by law students, journalism students, and a few concerned lawyers, organizations, and citizens. That is unacceptable.” 

Those who sit back and smugly suggest the system works after an innocent man has sat in jail for 16 prime years of his life simply don’t get it. The system failed because that innocent man is in jail and how many innocent men died waiting on that system to work.

There are many reasons the system has failed beginning with police and prosecutorial misconduct, mistaken identity, false confessions, bad lawyering, snitches and junk science. Even with this documented proof of failure state governors refuse to halt government sanctioned killing. 

Darnell Williams may have a second chance at life thanks to technology but can Americans continue to sit back while our justice system falters at the expense of a life. Maybe your perspective would be different if you were Darnell Williams.

sep 03

dcoleman@ilovemychildrentoo.org